“She believes that she was anointed by the good Lord as the chief magistrate. I hope that in the next step she would not think that she has not infallibility in her judicial opinions,” Arroyo told reporters on Tuesday.

Talking to court employees on Monday, the recently installed chief justice said that her appointment was not a product of lobbying by politicians or businessmen, but of God’s will.

Arroyo added that Sereno’s message may be perceived to contain a “subliminal” message that “faith might be mistaken for infallibility.”

The senator was not the first to notice the subliminal message. Poliitical pundit and blogger Patricio Mangubat wrote that he found Sereno's latest pronouncement "disturbing.”

Mangubat added that a belief in God does not jibe with the overwhelming presupposition of a neutral or religiously non-biased Court. “What the Court 'worships' is the Law," he concluded.

Also, Red Tani, a member of secularist activist group Filipino Freethinkers, rhetorically asked if Sereno’s “religious preoccupation” would take precedence over her duty to protect the constitutionally enshrined principle of secularism.